Highbury House

Was a school/sanatorium run by J. D. Wilde with school located at the top of Church Road and the sanatorium located at 14 Springfield Road in 1915.

ESCC Archives (The Keep) has the following detail:-

Highbury House School, Church Road, St Leonards, was a boarding and day school for boys, which was established in the 1860s by the Rev Charles Duff, an independent minister, who had been born in Scotland in about 1822. He was living in Stebbing, Essex, at the 1861 census, and was married to Fanny Elliott (aged 25; born in Portsmouth, Hampshire). The family probably moved to St Leonards between 1864 and 1865. Charles Duff appears in the 1867 Kelly's directory as the proprietor of Highbury House School, Edward Road, Church Road, St Leonards. He died soon afterwards, because Fanny is described as a widow (aged 33) and the school proprietor in the 1871 census. Her daughter Sibella (aged 17 and born in Stebbing) was living at the school in 1881; Fanny is the principal, and Robert Johnstone (aged 47) is the Headmaster. Fanny died at Highbury House on 28 October 1892 in her 57th year. The school was then run by Fanny's son, John Charles Archibald Duff (born 20 August 1865 at St Leonards). He was educated at Highbury House and abroad, and was in business from 1883-1886. He went to Christ's College Cambridge in October 1890, and was resident at Highbury House in 1891. He was still Headmaster in 1901, but was not listed in the 1909 Kelly's Directory. He moved to South Africa and became Head of the Education Department at Port Elizabeth, where he died on 28 November 1933 (Alumni Cantabrigienses). The magazine was first produced in January 1876 and refers to the schoolroom of the old Highbury House in Edward Road (AMS 6757/2/1/1, Jan issue, p19), indicating that the school either expanded, or moved to new premises nearby. Many magazines contain accounts of travels abroad by old boys.